Learning To Be a Safe Harbor for Kids ~ with Margaret Blaustein, PhD

12 April, 2014

Margaret Blaustein has dedicated her life to the healing of trauma—especially in kids. She and Kristine Kinniburgh, LICSW, created the ARC intervention framework which is the basis for the Head Start Trauma Smart program currently serving some 3,300 children annually in 26 counties in Kansas and Missouri.

ARC stands for Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency, and the beauty in Blaustein and Kinniburgh’s evidence-based work is that the training and mentoring is designed for anyone in a child’s life, from their school bus driver to the teachers, parents and grandparents. Kinniburgh and Blaustein’s groundbreaking work is helping parents, caregivers and teachers tune in and understand the messages children are sending through their behavior. What’s more important, the adults are learning to respond in a way that is calming, effective and, most of all, welcomed by the children.

Please join us for this stimulating interview with Margaret Blaustein. Whether you work with children who’ve been traumatized, or are simply a parent seeking a few tips on how to be with an upset child, you’ll find this interview meaningful and useful.

Margaret Blaustein
The Director of Training and Education at The Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute in Brookline, MA. Dr. Blaustein is a practicing clinical psychologist who specializes in the assessment and treatment of complex childhood trauma. She is co-developer of the Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency (ARC) treatment framework, designated a promising practice for treatment of childhood trauma by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and is co-author of the text, “Treating Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents”, published by Guilford Press. She has provided extensive didactic and interactive training to clinicians, educators, professionals, and consumers regarding the impact of and intervention for childhood-onset trauma. In addition to clinical practice, Dr. Blaustein is involved in research on the impact of trauma on both children and adults, is a member of the Complex Trauma Taskforce of the NCTSN, and is past Chair of the Child Trauma Special Interest Group within the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS).